The minister made the call at the second meeting of the National Council on Communications Technology (NCCT) held recently in Akure, Ondo State.
According to the minister, "Synergy among national and sub-national institutions is of critical importance if the current Information and Communications Technology (ICT) gains are to be sustained."
The NCCT has been established to facilitate inter-governmental consultations on ICT matters in order to avoid unnecessary disparities in ICT policies in the country. The council has two tiers, the ministerial meeting, which is normally attended by Commissioners in charge of ICT matters in the states as advised by their Permanent Secretaries and the officials meeting, attended by Permanent Secretaries or senior officials in charge of ICT matters in the government, with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications Technology as Chairman. It is expected that the council would be used to drive the synergy among government institutions.
The minister said with time, the procedure of the council would be streamlined along the line of similar sector councils, such that meetings of the council would be held twice a year or as the amount of business dictates. "The renewed interest in promoting intergovernmental relations and cascading development to the grassroots makes it imperative to have such a sector forum where we can all network and share experiences as well as proffer solutions to common problems," Johnson said.
To achieve result with the planned synergy, the minister said "Government has created ICT cadre in the ministries to ensure the right skills and capacity to pursue important egoverment initiatives are put in place. We now have a council of ICT Heads, the highest ICT advisory body of government, to ensure that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are pulling in the same direction and ensuring that we are receiving commensurate value for our significant IT spend in government."
The immediate tasks of the council of ICT Heads, she said, would be to standardise and deliver all ministry websites on the .gov.ng platform and roll out standard email addresses to all federal civil servants before the end September this year.
We launched the pilot of the government services portal with five ministries in November last year, giving citizens access to 15 new online processes. By October this year we would have included all pre and post incorporation processes of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for online delivery, the minister said. She added that government was implementing an informed citizenry government contact centre, which would have the potential benefits of improving citizens' access to information and services, increasing efficiency in service and information delivery to citizens and other stakeholders, creation of 1,250 jobs through outsourcing and stimulation of call centre outsourcing in the country, among others.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Emma Okonji
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 05.09.2013
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
